KABUL – US forces in helicopters recovered the remains Tuesday of the crewkilled when one of its military jets went down in a Taliban-controlledarea, hours after Afghan forces trying to reach the wreckage clashed withinsurgents.
The Bombardier E-11A — used for military communications — went down in asnowy part of eastern Afghanistan on Monday afternoon.
Ghazni police chief Khaled Wardak said US choppers landed at the site inthe late afternoon and were reinforced by Afghan security forces on theground during the operation.
“Following the removal of the bodies, our forces have moved back to theirbases. We don’t know where the foreigners have taken the bodies,” addedWardak.
Nasir Ahmad Faqiri, the head of the provincial council in Ghazni, confirmedthe operation, saying the Americans took at least two bodies from the scene.
Earlier in the day, coalition forces flew sorties over the site of thecrashed jet with one aircraft firing flares as a crowd gathered nearby,according to a local reporter at the scene.
The Pentagon has confirmed the aircraft belonged to US forces, butdismissed Taliban claims it had been shot down.
US officials have not confirmed or commented on Tuesday’s operation or saidhow many people were onboard the flight when it crashed.
Police chief Wardak said after the plane went down Afghan security forcestried to reach the wreckage late Monday when they were ambushed by theTaliban and pushed back.
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Ghazni police spokesman Ahmad Khan Sirat confirmed the ambush, adding thatat least one person was killed in the fighting between the Taliban andAfghan forces.
Footage from the crash site showed people speaking Pashto walking aroundthe crashed plane, with flames and smoke emanating from the charredfuselage.
What appeared to be at least two bodies could be seen.
Crashes involving military flights, particularly helicopters, are common inAfghanistan where inclement weather and creaky aircraft are often pressedto their limits in the war-torn country.
The crash comes as Washington and the Taliban continue to wrangle over apossible agreement that would see US troops begin to leave Afghanistan inreturn for security guarantees.
The two sides had been negotiating the deal for a year and were on thebrink of an announcement in September 2019 when US President Donald Trumpabruptly declared the process “dead”, citing Taliban violence.
Taliban sources told AFP earlier this month they had offered to initiate abrief ceasefire of seven to 10 days in a bid to restart the formalnegotiations, but there was no announcement of the proposal by eitherparty. – APP/AFP
